Hill’s helping skills training is the singular choice for students and early practitioners who wish to identify therapeutic interventions and learn how to apply these tools in different situations. While “technical,” Hill’s helping skills theory is compatible with any popular treatment approach and is flexible enough to allow readers the freedom to experiment and find their own way to become expert psychotherapists.
Hill is a master at distilling decades of psychotherapy research into concepts and skills that are understandable for beginner to intermediate students of counseling. The wide-ranging applicability of her common factors approach, backed by her deep knowledge of the field, is why I use this text with undergraduate psychology majors, doctoral students, and students in allied health care professions. It is remarkable how much each level of learner benefits from this one text.
Helping Skills is the indispensable text for teaching clinical skills to any helping professional. Hill’s transtheoretical model seamlessly integrates current empirical evidence with clear, practical guidance for delivering effective helping skills at every level of training. Students love the readability of this text, and the sixth edition’s addition of self-reflection exercises further enhances the learning experience, preparing students to become skilled and ethical helpers.
My students love learning helping skills! This book brings exploration, insight, and action to the next level as goals and intentions rather than stages. The helping skills model is more versatile than ever and includes thoughtful attunement to cultural competence, humility, and critical consciousness. Students will appreciate the focus on therapeutic change processes and skills. Instructors will prize the focus on therapist self-awareness, ethics, and the therapeutic relationship. The learning activities and invitations for self-reflection will appeal to everyone. The authors' research has demonstrated the value of learning by doing, and this book makes learning come alive.
As the delivery of mental health care is changing at the speed of light, acquiring helping skills remains a crucial key to effective practice. And while most classic books stay on a bookshelf, this one will be constantly in the hands of trainees, practitioners, and supervisors.
Helping Skills, Sixth Edition is an essential resource for budding professionals in the counseling field, offering a wealth of updated interactive features that enhance learning. Through a rich blend of updated case examples, self-reflection exercises, and role-play activities, this edition embraces a broad spectrum of diversity and provides a practical, hands-on approach to developing effective helping skills. With its innovative shift from a stage-based to a goal-based model and incorporation of the latest empirical research, this text expertly guides students in tailoring interventions to meet the unique needs of their clients.
Helping Skills is an invaluable resource for those training students in basic counseling skills, whether at the undergraduate or graduate level. Drs. Hill, Chui, and Gerstenblith, well-regarded experts in this area, effectively integrate conceptual and empirical literature while remaining keenly attuned to the ever-evolving professional demands of those working in the mental health field. Hill and colleagues also offer highly accessible examples, illustrations, and practical activities to demonstrate effective use of the skills.
The classic Helping Skills excels and improves with every edition! This new iteration brings more about cultural competence, case conceptualization, and clinician self-awareness. Hill and colleagues provide stellar training in foundational helping skills while simultaneously reflecting the complexity and beauty of the therapeutic enterprise.
This book just gets better and better with every edition! It provides a beautiful blending of theory and skills, just as psychotherapy requires such a seamless integration in practice. The authors invite students of all levels to engage in the exciting process of becoming a helper through critical reflection, intentional practice, and an openness to the complexity that is counseling and psychotherapy.
Engaging, comprehensive, and accessible, Helping Skills integrates theory, research, and clinical examples to stimulate beginning helpers’ development. This field-tested, evidence-based approach empowers helpers to grow through scaffolded role-plays, challenging questions, and reflective exercises. It is the preeminent method of skills training in counseling and psychotherapy.
The most helpful book about psychotherapeutic helping keeps getting better. The authors have not only discussed in depth the importance and integration of three significant, common goals of therapy––exploration, insight, and action––but have done so in an exemplary “experience near” fashion, providing multiple clinical examples, questions, cultural perspectives, research evidence, and reflections that will surely improve the ability and self-awareness of all those learning to do this increasingly important work.
Reviewer: Gary B Kaniuk, PsyD (Cermak Health Services)
Description: This book presents helping skills, or counseling skills, at an introductory level. The author has a three-stage model consisting of exploration, insight, and action. It is an integrative approach to psychotherapy, including principles from psychodynamic, client-centered, and cognitive-behavioral theories. The first edition of this book was published in 1999.
Purpose: According to the author, "the first purpose of this book is to provide you with a theoretical framework that you can use to approach the helping process. The second purpose is to teach you specific skills to use in sessions with clients to help them explore, gain insight, and make changes in their lives. A third purpose is to get you started in the process of coming to think of yourself as a helper." The book meets these worthy objectives.
Audience: The book is intended for undergraduate and graduate students who are interested in learning introductory psychotherapy skills, but it is also an excellent resource for beginning mental health professionals, as well as college students. The author has taught college students for 30 years and is a prolific researcher. In addition, she is North American editor-elect of Psychotherapy Research, the journal of the Society for Psychotherapy Research. Her research interests are dream work, the psychotherapy process, and training therapists.
Features: The book discusses helping skills, which is a three-stage model that the author has developed including exploration, insight, and action. This model is integrative in nature, using principles from various traditions in order to focus on emotions, cognitions, and behaviors. The author goes to great lengths to explain each one of the stages. Each chapter includes a "what do you think" section at the end, which helps the readers consider what they have just read. There are also lab exercises scattered throughout the book in order to practice the skills with others.
Assessment: This book is excellent. It covers the basics of the psychotherapeutic relationship well and the author's theory is a helpful paradigm, integrating some great concepts from other theorists. The book is easy to read and the material can be applied in a clinical context. It justifies replacing the previous edition because some of the material has been changed to facilitate learning. The author points out that there are more references to culture throughout the book and the stages have been modified since the first edition. This is one of the best books on psychotherapy that I have ever read.
